At 12:21 PM 01/10/2000 -0800, John Hudson wrote:
>The former, the 'sloped roman' italic
>is not, as one contributor suggested, 'traditional' in sans serif types in
>either Latin or Cyrillic typography; rather, it is the common italic in one
>particular style of sans serif lettering, the so-called geometric or
>modernist style. The development of humanist sans serifs has led to the
>application of cursive conventions in sans serif italics.

Traditionally a slanted roman sans serif is called oblique not italic.
Check out the "Italics" in the Postscript "Basic 35" Set on any Printer and
you'll see that the Serifs are "...Italic" while the Sans Serifs are
"...Oblique". I took 7 years of Printing in High School and College and
that was the way I remember
it.